Rioja, whose owner/chef Jennifer Jaskinski came really, really close to winning this season’s Top Chef Masters, is back on the list, landing at spot No. 18. Last time Rioja was included was in 2011.

Faison prefaces her effort by noting: “After countless lunches, dinners, tens of thousands of calories and hours of careful deliberation and debate, our fourth annual ranking of the Denver area’s best restaurants is complete. Dig in for a comprehensive, of-the-moment snapshot of the local dining scene.”

Sassafras opened in May of 2012 and specializes in breakfast and brunch cooked up in Southern style. Crowd-pleasers include chicken-fried eggs, shrimp grits and Cap’n Crunch milkshakes.

John Broening is the executive chef at Spuntino and his wife, Yasmin Lozada-Hissom, does the pastries. It’s open for brunch, lunch and dinner. I’ve only been there for lunch, and can highly recommend the grain salad ($9), a very tasty mix of farro, cannellini beans, quinoa, red onions, cherry tomatoes and avocado. For dessert, there’s a huge selection of housemade gelato, but I can’t resist the lemon marshmallow meringue copetta ($7) that is garnished with pink peppercorn crunch and fresh berries.

The Populist, according to The Post’s review, has a “tight and well-edited menu,” with 10 small plates and seven mains. Another choice is a seven-course tasting menu that costs $65 for two; $100 if you include wine pairings.